All posts tagged Alan Brown

Rentokil Initial Friday made a rare admission: in seeking to achieve efficiencies and restore the fortunes of its ailing parcel-delivery business, City Link, it cut too deep.

Alan Brown, chief executive of the pest control and cleaning specialist, must be wondering if the business is cursed.

The former executive at chemicals company ICI was introduced as a new broom in April 2008 to clean up at the rat-catcher, which had been plagued by problems at City Link.

Two and a half years later, he is still trying.

City Link in the third quarter made an operating loss of £1.3 million, the same as a year earlier, even though revenue fell 5.1% to £80.8 million. However, the biggest stain on that performance was the failure to meet targeted savings.

The reason for that? Rentokil axed 10% of the drivers on its front-line collection and delivery routes at the start of the year, and now it’s having to pay more to hire subcontractors to maintain its customer service.